Unto Shadows
by Krivoklatsko
Summary: The Grimm persist, despite no lack of heroes. Their many permutations continue to kill. It is in this world, The Remnant, many years from now, that our story begins. Professor Blake Belladonna leads the next generation on their first Search and Destroy.
1. Chapter 1

Little else beside this had been written about the fields outside of Odessa: "No dust. Bad soil."

The grass was healthy, but of a short variety. Nothing else in the way of flora prospered here. Professor Belladonna pointed at a nearby mountain range.

"There's a forest on the other side of those. We're going to pass under them, through a cave system, and come out into the AO that we think the Grimm are in."

She looked to each of her four students, waiting for a question or a nod. It was only in this moment that she realized how incredibly young they all looked. Their weapons were comically large for their size, and they all had the posture of a spoiled civilian- All but Mud.

Mud simply stood. The awkward pose was itself a sign of childhood. Robin raised her hand hesitantly.

"Go ahead," Belladonna nodded.

Robin had a look of excited ignorance.

"How come there's no forest on this side of the mountains?" she chimed.

"Because of the mountains," Mud mumbled.

"Can't the seeds get on this side?"

"Talk while you walk," Belladonna sighed.

She turned and lead them, trying to hide her less-than-imposing smile. The chatter was welcome, but she knew the kids respected her for being a hard ass.

They all took up the pace, and Sapphire added her voice.

"Seeds can get here," She explained, "but there isn't any rain for them. The mountains create something called a rain shadow. That means that the pressure difference caused by a cloud rising over the mountains makes it drop its rain on the way. So when it-"

"-UUUUUUUUUUGH, shut up!" Kale drawled.

"What? Robin asked me why-"

"Quiet," Belladonna repeated.

She held out her scroll, to show the incoming call.

"Belladonna, Beacon," she answered.

"Morning, Huntress. This is Cruiser _From Shadows_ , Mistral Second Expeditionary. We're on patrol in the area, performing checkups."

"Something wrong?"

"New Little Odessa was destroyed three days ago. There is a travel advisory in effect for the whole area. We were following a small pack of Grimm back to their swarm but they've dropped off tracking."

"That's what we're here for," Belladonna smiled.

"Glad to hear it, Professor. If you need to contact us again, we'll be circling the greater area for another day before we depart. Good hunting. _From Shadows_ out."

Belladonna closed her scroll and reversed her walk, to progress while talking to her students.

"Before you get any big ideas, I'd like to remind you that you're first years. This is a Search and Destroy mission, but that doesn't mean that we can just wander into a swarm and engage them all at once. We pick our battles, we strike hard, and we run. And if I decide that even one of you can't handle it, we skip the first two steps. We are in the wild, and we are on our own, and that means our first objective is to survive."

The children gaped at her, horrified. And the scariest Grimm they'd ever seen was an Ursa, maybe something giant. She turned forward again, to hide her smile.

"She's so _cool_ ," Robin whispered.

"Shh! She's a faunus. She can probably hear you," Sapphire hissed.

"We can't just hear _anything_ ," Kale corrected.

"I can hear you," Belladonna confirmed.

"See?" Sapphire hissed, "You're a dog and she's a cat-"

"Here we go," Robin mumbled.

"-and cats have better hearing, which you would have known if you studied as much as I did."

"Did you really just-"

"-Can we not have the race talk again?" Robin interrupted, "we already have to take a class on it. It's been like fifty years since the White Fang laid down their weapons and went moderate."

"Twenty," Sapphire corrected.

"Twenty three, three months, and eight days," Belladonna corrected.

Her scar itched. The jagged line twitched, and the spasm followed its hard edge from her eye, down her cheek, around her jaw, across her throat, and under her collar. She placed a hand against it gently, and tried to forget.

"Whoa. She remembers that?" Mud mumbled.

"Duuu-uuh," Sapphire leaned, "Do you even _read_ the optional textbooks?"

"No?"

"But, haven't you heard of team RWBY?" Robin offered.

"Yeah?"

His teammates all gestured at Blake Belladonna's back.

"Whoa. Whoa, wait, wait, wait, like _the_ Belladonna? Really?"

They all slapped their foreheads.

Kale chuckled, "You... Seriously? You've had a crush on her since day one, and you didn't know that?"

Blake turned a smirk over her shoulder. Through the dirt on his face, Mud turned red. Robin reached out to offer him a toy.

"Hey, wanna play with this finger trap?"

"I'm not _stupid_ ," he mumbled, "I just didn't know."

Sapphire sighed, "Robin, please tell me you didn't bring _all_ of your magic tricks with you."

"Just the ones I like," she chimed.

Everyone groaned.

Blake missed her friends.

They camped the first night at the base of the caves, when their path intersected that of a caravan exiting the system. Both groups were small, but together, they would give pause to a Grimm smart enough to otherwise kill them all. Blake assembled her students before the parties agreed to merge. She gave them this advice: "We're staying the night with them. It is customary, outside of the walls, for strangers to stay together at night. There is safety in numbers. But you never, ever discuss your business, in case you find out that you are enemies. These men are criminals."

"What kind of criminals?" Robin asked.

"You're not supposed to interrupt her," Mud mumbled.

" _Loverbiiiiird_ ," Kale hummed under his breath.

"It doesn't matter," Blake continued. "Do not discuss our business, and do not ask about theirs. We will be safe for the night, and we will part peacefully in the morning."

Mud, and no one else, slept soundly.

"He grew up outside the walls," Sapphire explained to the darkness of the tent's roof.

"Gee, I couldn't tell," Kale whispered back.

"He's a really nice guy," Robin frowned.

"You all really need to shut up so I can sleep," Professor Belladonna hissed.

They waited, quiet and alert. The criminals rose and left an hour before dawn.

The next day brought them into the caves. Blake paused at the first fork and felt them out with long stares and silence. She laid out the map for the students to see.

"Pop quiz," she announced, a smile directed at Sapphire.

"This fork leads into two very different tunnels. They are approximately the same length, and they both meet again on our way there and back. Both tunnels have branches deeper into the mountain. Taking what you know about your abilities and what we're likely to find in these environments, which route would you advise to a merchant? Which route would you search to find Dust? Which route is easier to defend if Grimm are on both sides?"

"Dust," Mud pointed. He hadn't hesitated for a second.

Professor Belladonna looked shocked. So did everyone else.

"Sorry, I cheated," Mud smiled.

"How?" Blake wondered.

"All your hair stood on end when you looked down that tunnel. Faunus do that when they're near a lot of Dust."

"Creeeeeeper," Kale sang under his breath.

 _Well, I've still got it,_ Blake consoled herself.

"Okay. Well, that's good enough for the Schnee company. I'll give it to you. And how about Grimm? If I'm a Dust merchant with a lot of cargo that's yummy for Grimm, which route should I go through?"

They all waited for the team leader's thoughts to resolve. She was counting and sorting them in front of her with hand gestures.

"The same one," she decided.

Belladonna smiled.

"Okay. Why?"

"Refined dust is flown, trained, or shipped from a refinery straight to a manufactory. Any merchant coming through here will have raw Dust. The Grimm won't notice him in a tunnel that's already full of it."

Blake nodded, "But what happens if the Grimm _do_ find them?"

"They retreat?"

Blake traced her finger along the branches.

"The Grimm would be coming out of the deeper caves. If the merchant gets ambushed anywhere in the winding middle-section, the Grimm can outmaneuver them along the entire trail. They're surrounded. An unarmed merchant will always prefer a situation they can escape from."

"Oh," Sapphire frowned.

"Cheer up," Belladonna grinned, rolling up the map, "No one died."

She stood to face the tunnels.

"Now the last question is for us. I know it's obvious, but suppose we walk in here and Grimm come at us from both ends. Which tunnel do we want to be in?"

She tilted her head and her thumb into the left tunnel, along with everyone but Mud. They all turned to him. Belladonna's smile faltered.

"Okay. That's an interesting choice. Care to explain, Mud?"

"That other tunnels gonna cave in," he mumbled.

His teammates sighed, tired of his nonconformity.

"And how can you possibly know that?" Sapphire challenged.

Mud shrugged.

Belladonna saw his fearful expression, looking down the long expanse of the other tunnel. She smiled.

"Would you be more comfortable in the first tunnel?"

Mud nodded.

The rest of their trip was uneventful. They passed into the forest on the far side, stopped to check the time and whine about no reception, ate, and found themselves a moment later at somewhere of note.

The forest was dense and lively. The chit chat of bugs looking for mates and birds looking for mates and squirrels looking for mates was omnipresent and loud enough to raise their speaking voices. It was loud enough that Belladonna didn't chastise them for noise discipline- not until Sapphire shrieked.

"Kale! Really? Now?"

Kale giggled. Professor Belladonna saw them standing close, and Sapphire adjusting her combat skirt with a tempered smile. The season was in full swing.

"Not too loud. Grimm aren't the only thing out here," she muttered.

This was also when they found their place of note. Kale saw it first. He tapped Professor Belladonna's arm and pointed squad-right. Belladonna motioned everyone into concealment. Everyone turned silent. The forest kept chirping, and would not care if they all died in battle in a few minutes. Blake waited for Sapphire to see their target. She pointed at the team leader.

"Professor Arc's a good teacher. You're in her tactics class?"

Sapphire nodded.

Blake drew her weapons.

"Show me."


	2. Chapter 2

Sapphire Pond issued her first real command in the field. She pointed to Professor Belladonna, and placed her on the left flank. She sent Mud to the far right, alone, where he had always insisted he worked best. She and Kale took up the middle, with Robin behind and between them.

The foliage was thick. They pushed forward in relative silence, no vision yielding save the one: Over the bushes, a human arm impaled on a spike. Then the foliage ended, and they saw that there were more spikes, and more pieces to the body. They had stumbled across a natural, flat stone. And whoever had been there before them had decorated with blood.

Sigils and lines marked the boundaries and foci of the ritual. Sapphire had no idea what it meant, so she turned her head to Robin, their resident magician. Robin silently mouthed, "Oh, ha ha, like I know."

Professor Belladonna sheathed her blade and replaced it on her back. She pointed to Sapphire and spun a circle in the air. Sapphire understood. She tapped Kale's shoulder and signaled him and Robin into a perimeter. Mud stood from Concealment and guessed his role with hand signals and a shrug. Sapphire nodded. But she didn't move to her own post. She watched Professor Belladonna, who was inspecting the fruit on a vine.

"Um... Professor?"

"I've seen these symbols before," Belladonna whispered.

"Professor? What's going on?"

"There aren't any Grimm here, and this wasn't done by a human. We should be clear."

Then, louder: "Everyone gather up!"

They each waited for Sapphire to nod to them. It went to her head, but she tried to hide that. She was more interested in Professor Belladonna's knowledge.

"Professor, if Grimm did this, why would they leave the body parts here?"

"Grimm don't eat," Mud noted.

"Grimm don't have rituals, either," Kale noted, "They aren't intelligent. They just act on instinct. A person had to move these parts around. Maybe it's some holdout group from the White Fang?"

"No," Belladonna snapped.

Robin thought through the pieces and tried, "So... A Grimm tore up the person and then a human came by and dragged the parts around? How do we know there were Grimm here at all?"

"We don't," Belladonna admitted.

"So..."

"Because we know there weren't any humans here- no faunus either. Look around you. This person died at night, and not recently. The torso over there has a torch on it. It's turned on, and the Dust battery ejected onto the ground. But why can't we smell any people? Nothing human, no faunus. Just that weird footprint in the mud."

The students heads had been snapping around to each clue she announced. They turned on their heels to find the footprint, and all stood around it, nodding in agreement.

"That's not human."

"-Like, at all."

"And the ritual wasn't done by humans," Blake continued.

"Where are the torches? Where are the fires? Where are the expended Dust cartridges? And see this fruit here?"

They all gathered around it. Sapphire recognized a Ruevine berry.

"Ruevine berries are poisonous," she told everyone.

"Yeah, thanks, I was considering eating it," Kale snarked.

The fruit had turned black like shadow, and the Grimm-like evaporate escaping it was a clear sign of corruption.

Mud poked it with a stick.

"Careful," Robin worried.

Belladonna pointed at it, "So Grimm were definitely here. But where did they-"

Her head snapped up. She reached for the blade on her right shoulder. The students were all relying on their auras to warn them of Grimm, and that hadn't happened. It took them another second to realize that the bugs and birds had all gone quiet.

Everyone brought their weapons to bear a second later, when the feeling crept to their senses. Their aural mastery instructors called it Phantom Dread. The first masters had used it to sense the presence of dust specters. Only later was it trained to feel the presence of Grimm. Sapphire described the feeling as cold, like icy fingertips walking up her spine and flattening against her neck.

Her heart raced. Her first instinct was to wait for Belladonna's orders, but she also knew the instructor was a lonely type, like Mud. Sapphire had the best situational awareness of the group, and sharing it was how she helped. She snapped her fingers and started them into a concave formation. Belladonna grabbed her arm. They all stopped.

The professor still hadn't drawn her primary weapon. Belladonna's hand hovered over Gambol Shroud's hilt, then reached past it and drew the second sword on her back, a Chokutō, an ancient straight-blade from the Great War. Sapphire recognized the craftsmanship instantly, when the blade drew. She had never known its significance until now. The blade was crimson. The sheathe doubled as a rifle. And seeing this weapon in its full form, Sapphire finally understood why Professor Belladonna would carry two weapons at all times. Because one was hers- and the other was more personal. This sword and sheathe were Wilt and Bloom. They had been the weapons of the White Fang leader, Adam Taurus.

Blake stood to her full height, her eyes darting around the forest, her focus so intent, it seemed she had forgotten her students. Then she spoke in a low and forceful whisper.

"Robin. Grenade."

She held out a hand. Robin tossed her two. Belladonna caught it and pointed to Sapphire.

"Sapphire, take the map. _Take it_! Now take your team back through the cave and get to the other side of the mountain range. Signal the Cruiser and tell them you need evacuation."

The group tightened. Their weapons oriented as the feeling intensified. Sapphire felt the threat as imminent. The Grimm were near. The Grimm were _here_. It was too late to run.

"But..."

"No questions. We're done here. Run."

Everything else happened too quickly to remember. There was a loud crunch. The ruevine berry popped beside them. Professor Belladonna's head swiveled to the sound. She met eyes with Sapphire. She looked down. Her eyes widened.

Belladonna cast a grenade at her own feet. Dirt and stone shrapnel leaped into the air like mist. Sapphire saw what Belladonna had intuited- the shrapnel landing against a shape in thin air- a void where something invisible was standing. The dirt settled over a Grimm. It stood four meters tall. Its eyes overlapped in ways that turned the stomach and challenged physics. Its mouths gnashed and sang, one voice soft and clear as if speaking a language, the other growling and inhuman.

Sapphire ran. She let fear guide her. Robin and Mud were at her side, and Kale was close behind. Belladonna was everywhere else. She heard the professor's battle cries traversing the trees and the air at whim. She heard the instruction to keep running.

She didn't look back until the cave swallowed the light. And what she saw there was the very end of her courage.

Belladonna fell with a thud. She landed on her back, stunned, and with her last motion, cast another grenade into the tunnel. Sapphire was jerked back by her collar, by Mud's quick thinking. And then there was darkness. Sapphire scrambled for her shoulder torch, and lit the stones before her.

"She's trapped," she realized, "Professor Belladonna... How is she going to escape?"

Kale placed a hand on Sapphire's shoulder.

"She isn't."

It was not a steady or matter-of-fact tone. Mud, though quiet, was crying. Robin was watching him, too downcast to offer any comfort. She sat and cradled her head.

Mud wiped tears and sweat from his face. Sapphire heard scratching outside, and the howling of beasts. It may have taken an hour to accept, but there was no reason for them to stay. They were waiting for a miracle, or an order. Sapphire steadied her voice.

"She ordered us to retreat. Everyone get up. We double-time back to the fields and try to hail the cruiser."

They took the Dust tunnel, quietly, huffing and panting as they turned a five-hour walk into an hour's run. In Odessa's fields, they alternated between watching the sun set and waiting for a signal. Their message was brief.

Sapphire held her scroll to her mouth. Her team was watching her.

"Hello? This is Professor Belladonna's party from Beacon Academy. We... We need help."

Static responded. Their last resort was a distress flare. It pulsed bright and loud, high in the night sky. They were alone.

Sapphire organized the watch schedule. She received no sass. Her team was too exhausted. They were all short on sleep and had spent all their emotions on fear and sorrow. She did not sleep. She couldn't. She laid Professor Belladonna's map out near the fire and studied the Professor's notes. She knew her team didn't have supplies for a walk back to civilization. So had the Professor. She'd made a black circle on the village of Odessa and scribbled, "Last resort. Supplies. Slavers."

It was the same direction that their camp mates had set out on the previous night. She folded the map and tied it with the black, silk bow that Professor Belladonna had left on it. On a second thought, she bound the map with her spare shoelace, and tied the bow onto her arm.


	3. Chapter 3

Kale Reed learned of the plan during the midwatch. Sapphire showed him the map, though she'd scribbled out Professor Belladonna's notes. Then she lied to him about getting enough sleep. He was worried. He knew to be worried about her in particular. He saw his friend changing, rapidly. Adaptation was how people survived; But that didn't mean she would be okay.

He rose in the morning to find her tent already packed. She was dousing the fire. They marched while they ate, and their packs felt heavier than the day prior. He saw the black ribbon tied on her arm, and understood that she was battling fate at full strength.

The first good feeling of the day came from Robin. She drew his attention with a hesitant smile, and asked, "What do you call a Grimm with no eye?"

Kale was tired. He took a while to ask, "I don't know. What?"

"A Grrrrmmmm," she strained.

No one laughed. Kale forced a smile to show his appreciation. A few minutes later, Sapphire sighed, "that was pretty funny."

Mud nodded in agreement, musing, "and I thought I had a _grim_ sense of humor."

"Damnit, Mud," Kale snickered.

They all smiled.

The dying smoke from Odessa was visible on the horizon, like a black smudge where the cartographer had erased it. Kale saw motion in the debris. He smelled meat cooking on a distant fire, and could tell by instinct that a specific beast of burden was ahead.

"Those criminals we camped with are here," he mumbled.

Sapphire reversed her walk to talk.

"I need to lay down some rules before we get there."

Robin, mistaking the mood, snarked, "Never change-"

"-Shut up or wait here."

Kale knew now, without a doubt, that his friend was not okay. But they all understood the mood. Sapphire continued.

"These people are not our friends. Do not trust them. We stay in line of sight with each other at all times. Keep your weapons at low ready, never holstered. I'm not losing any of you. No excuses. Rule two: You see something, you say something, we bug out. We're only here because we need food for the journey. We get food, we move on."

Kale was not in the know about his situation. He saw survivors digging through the ruins to rebuild their life. When he reached the first pile of rubble and started digging in, he began with a sheepish glance to the other person working on the same house. Then he hefted a boulder off of the fridge, and found it ajar. Blood and gristle filled the inside, where someone had tried and failed to hide. He retched, and declined an offer of help from the stranger. He saw that Sapphire and Mud had paused their work to watch him. Thumbs up. Move on. Breathe.

It was a moment later that he realized he wasn't the only scavenger. He was there for food; the others were taking valuables. He felt no shame after that. They organized a house-by-house party. They had grown up in the city, and Mud was suddenly the expert on what would keep fresh for their trek. The only heirloom that tempted Kale was the diary of a fellow faunus.

He looked from it to Sapphire, asking her judgment. She shrugged and leaned against the wall, her eyes closed. She put a hand on him, and he knew not to alert her until they absolutely were done with the house. The sound of voices, distant, below the others' hearing, made him stiffen. He held up a hand for silence. Two men, across the village were talking among friends.

"Had an interesting run in with the Balefires."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, they got all riled up last night while we was on patrol. Snatched one out from under them. They said it was fair game, since they'd lost it."

"And?"

"That's it."

"They didn't want to trade?"

"They said they had easier prey elsewheres. Anyway, we've got that broker from Atlas coming tomorrow. He'll appreciate good product."

"Been a long time since Atlas was buying."

"Labor's cheaper now. They don't want faunus in particular. Just coincidence. No, the real demand right now is aural fighters."

"Huntsman?"

"They don't want 'em for their fuckin' credentials, Ginger."

"What _do_ they want them for?"

"Oh, experiments. Trying to relearn the old ways- How to steal a soul. What it's made of."

"Broker say that?"

"Yup. But he learned it from somebody else, and he says that one's got a sick sense of humor."

"Probably not true."

"Probably."

"Yeah, I think they got the same need for goods in Atlas as anywhere else."

"Wouldn't doubt it."

"Say, Boss, you know about that pack of students diggin' around down the road, right?"

"What?"

"Yeah, four huntsmen in training."

"Four?!"

"I think."

"Gimme the radio."

Kale had heard enough.

"They're talking about us," he murmured.

Sapphire snapped awake. She shouldered her scattergun.

"Drop it, Robin. We're leaving now."

Kale turned to see her, hunched beside the pantry with all the food they could wish for in her arms, but not in her pack. She looked stupefied.

"No time! We go now!"

They cleared the front door, weapons ready, into a mob. Sapphire chambered a burn crystal, cut, and fired a warning shot at the men approaching. The round kicked dirt and flames into their eyes, and they understood that this would be a fair fight.

The ringleader was jogging to reach them, shouting, "Whoa! Whoa! Everybody calm down."

Kale kept his rifle raised. The ringleader kept his tongue sharp.

"Hey now, we're just tryin' to be hospitable. Don't you remember us?"

He gestured to the cow they'd camped with.

"Look, fellow travelers, we know you're hard on food right now. And- well I won't pretend these properties were ours, but seeing as the previous owners are dead, we've availed ourselves of their valuables, just as you did. We're scavengers, I won't deny it. That doesn't mean we don't care about the living. Look. Ginger, show 'em."

The nearest man, a redhead, reached for his pack. Sapphire trained her weapon at his head. The man had been named for a color, but people outside of the walls did not indulge in fashion. These bandits all had the same worn leather and hide scraps for clothes. Ginger presented a fresh cut of beef.

Sapphire whispered, "Don't shoot," as she stepped to her side, and motioned her group to follow.

Kale followed, and they moved, arms steady from training and adrenaline. Kale could sense on their opponents that there wasn't an aural shield among them. But he could plainly see their rifles were from Atlas. There was a chance, slim but deadly, that they had just the right ammo for this fight. Sapphire had made a good call. Everyone could walk away.

Ginger sneered.

"They don't want it, Boss. I guess they ain't hungry."

"That's fine, we're moving the same way on the same road. And our offers always stay open," he smiled.

It was a malicious, voracious display of teeth.

Kale's focus fell elsewhere. The distance broadened as their group moved clear of the town. And just as his eyes were the last clear vision on the enemy, just as the range broadened to safety, he caught a glimpse of what would really bring his team back. Dread of duty fell like a weight from his heart to his bowels.

The ringleader, just as poorly dressed as his band, had somehow procured a black, silk ribbon.


	4. Chapter 4

"Mud? What's your last name?"

Mud shrugged, "Just Mud."

Robin looked doubtful.

"Did you ever think it would be nice to have a last name?"

Mud thought about it for the first time.

"I think... It would just be nice to have a family."

Mud was familiar with nature, but not beauty. He'd spent a long time in the city just sitting and staring at architecture. He watched Robin smile with the same expression. It was a brief respite from frowning. They were sitting together at the edge of camp, watching for silhouettes on the horizon. Kale had suggested to Sapphire that she sleep. She'd nodded. She was too tired to object when they set up her tent and shoved her in it. It meant that Mud was alone with Robin for the first time.

"I'm scared," she admitted.

"Me too."

"I don't want any of us to die," Robin confessed.

She placed a hand near to Mud, as if reaching for him.

"I didn't want to kill anymore," he answered.

He placed a hand over hers, gently, acknowledging her reach. He watched the last light vanish from the plains, and turned to see the deep darkness in Robin's eyes.

"You care about her a lot," Robin whispered.

"I can't explain it," Mud whispered, "but she was the first kind person I met. And she taught me how to fight. She... She brought me to Beacon."

In the darkness, he heard Robin swallow.

"I care about you, too," she whispered.

He put his arm around her, and they rested their heads together.

"I like you, Robin," Mud smiled.

She returned the gesture with excitement.

"Just... give me some time," Mud frowned.

She returned that expression with sorrow.

Kale cleared his throat to warn of his approach. They separated, and he squatted between them.

"It's time."

They roused Sapphire and lit the camp fire. They had some fun making dummies of each other. Mud drew a heart on Robin's. They set them up around the fire, and left a tent standing.

"The smoke and silhouettes will draw their attack party," Sapphire had explained.

"Less guards," Mud had nodded.

Their last plan was made on the village's outskirts.

"We need recon before we attack," Sapphire whispered, "Or they'll just hold her hostage and we'll have to retreat again. Kale-"

"-It should be me," Mud interrupted.

"He's right," Kale added.

Mud thanked him with a nod. It was an acknowledgment that their rivalry meant less than their friendship. Sapphire didn't seem to get it.

"What? Why?"

"I can see in the dark and hear really well, sure. But that doesn't mean I can move quiet or stay hidden. Remember when we played Capture the Flag? Mud got past every faunus at Beacon. The teachers were scared of him."

Sapphire nodded at the reasoning. She turned to Mud.

"Okay. Here's what we need, Mud. Find out where she is, find out how she's guarded. Then you come get us, and we extract her without a fight if we can. We'll get closer, meanwhile. Robin, you'll be up in the second floor of the barn. If we need to do a loud engage, you start us with a bang. Kale, you and I will be on the ground floors of the other two dark buildings. We start the quiet engage with melee. Everyone understand?"

They all nodded. Mud leaned in.

"Suppose I get caught? What do I do?"

"Make noise. We'll figure it out."

Mud nodded. His eyes fell to the ribbon on her arm.

"Sapphire... If it's alright... Could I have the armband?"

No one had addressed it yet. They didn't understand if it was her crutch or her memento mori. They all knew it meant more to Mud than to any of them. Sapphire hesitated, then removed it slowly, and handed it to him with both hands.

"Thanks."

Mud rubbed it in the nearest puddle. He paused, realizing he'd goofed.

"What?"

"Why'd you do that?" Robin strained.

"Silk's stronger when it's wet," he shrugged.

They didn't understand.

"It's stronger than _steel_ when it's wet- like a steel cage, or steel binds."

Their outrage faltered, and they nodded at the practicality of it.

"Wish me luck," were his parting words.

Mud slipped into the puddle himself, and became the darkness. It coddled him. The cool night air no longer tickled his skin. He had become the elements of the night. The only sounds he heard for a long time were the fluids moving in his body, the creak of sinew and muscle when he moved. He remembered the first kind words he'd heard.

"I'm Professor Belladonna. I teach at Beacon Academy. We train Huntsmen. And yes, some Huntsmen are assassins. But assassins are rare. That's why they sent me. Because I know what you've been through. It's okay if you don't want to talk, Mud. I know it can be hard."

Mud focused when light found his eyes. He slipped past two chatting guards, then across the expanse of a garden, taking care through the ruined bushes, and into the window of a lit building. He'd been lucky, and that had made him cocky. Through the crack in a door, he saw Professor Belladonna in stocks, her head resting low.

He hadn't noticed until he landed that the room was occupied. Any more motion would betray him. He recognized the bandit Ginger. Ginger was arranging something on a comfy, round dinner table. The bandit leader entered by slamming the door aside.

He stared at Ginger's work, tongue cleaning behind his gums, then announced, "They don't want her."

Ginger stopped.

"What?"

The boss shook his head.

"Turns out she's a celebrity. Broker says the goods are too hot- can't risk moving her. She's worthless to us."

"I wouldn't say that," Ginger grinned. His hands lifted a serpentine blade from the table.

"You're sick, Ginger."

"Uhuh. So what do we do with her?"

The leader sighed.

"We're gonna try selling her to the Balefires. They do that thing they do about once a month, only it's been six weeks. So I'm guessing demand's high. Hobble her hands and feet. They like their goods processed. And do it quick. Saw a cruiser nearby few days ago and we don't want to be here if they come lookin'. We're headin' out as soon as the Getters get back."

"They won't be back for another three hours," Ginger noted.

"Yeah?"

"Only take me an hour to hobble her and seal her wounds," Ginger grinned.

"I don't wanna know."

The Boss turned and left, slamming the door behind him. Ginger took another long moment to select a tool- a metal spike, curved and bent precisely to sever and scoop an eyeball. He stood from the table and did a jig on his way to the other room. His feet were loud. A key chain jingled on his waist. He didn't hear or see Mud creep after him.

He woke Belladonna with a loud thud against her stocks. She raised her head. The one eye with line-of-sight to Mud was swollen shut, and caked with blood. Someone had been very precise about reopening her scar.

"I'm sorry to say this will be our last night together," Ginger simpered.

Blake gathered her spit and soiled his pants.

"That's what you're reduced to, now, Huntress. No more high and mighty Auracraft. No Dust weapons."

Ginger placed a hand against her cheek, to emphasize the lack of protection, the absence of her aura. Mud wrapped the silk tight in his hands, just as Professor Belladonna had taught him.

"You've been poisoned, you see, by fruit corrupted by the Grimm. There are little worms of dark mist wriggling in your blood. It'll be days before they're out of your system. We actually brew them into existence. You wouldn't believe who taught us how to do it."

Blake growled. Ginger jabbed the dagger into her back- not deep, and nowhere vital, but exactly where every huntsman was taught to place a non-lethal takedown. Mud struck.

The struggle was sudden. Mud hadn't expected such a quick reaction from his target. But he had secured his grip. Ginger swung his knife wildly. Belladonna cried out as a gash opened on her side. The silk tightened, and Mud wrapped his legs over Ginger's arms. The bandit thrashed and rammed them into the wall. Pottery crashed. Voices raised outside, and explosions followed. Mud felt his arms burning from exertion, but he had the leverage he needed. He saw the bandit's neck straining not to collapse, then failing. He saw the skin turning purple, and he felt Ginger's legs give out. He stayed on top as they fell, and he kept his arms taught long past the end of the corpse's spasms.

His next conscious moment was of Robin placing her hand on his shoulder. Blood splatter decorated her battle dress. Mud's arms relaxed, and he saw that Professor Belladonna had been freed. Sapphire and Kale were speaking at her side.

"Why won't her wound heal?"

"Poison. She's poisoned. Get the bandages."

She was curled in a ball, her eyes closed, clutching her stomach. But she was alive, for now.


	5. Chapter 5

Robin Mauve was alone. Cold wind whistled past her ears as she ran into the forest. Belladonna was wounded, and she couldn't heal unless her poison was cured. Sapphire knew the recipe, and Robin knew how to brew. Her friends had scattered to the four winds. Mud was guarding Belladonna. Kale was searching the plains for daffodils. Sapphire was scouring the buildings for woodshrooms. Robin set out for the ingredient that was easiest to get wrong, and closest to the Grimm.

That was her first thought when she dropped into cover. Twenty meters ahead, a dark orb releasing crescents of red energy pulsed in the night. She saw the bony face of a monster emerge, and she knew she was in trouble. She knew she couldn't retreat. She placed a sparkler with a remote charge on the tree beside her, then scurried around to the thing's right flank. She waited for it to move, and she held her breath when it did.

It walked on hind legs, like the things that had chased them. It wore armor. It had a katana on its left hip.

"You're a huntsman," Robin breathed.

Her target's head snapped to the sound, then stepped into concealment and vanished.

"But not a friend," she realized too late.

"No," a voice whispered behind her.

She half-turned. A blade at her neck stopped her. She felt the tingle of Dust on its tip. Robin held very still. She was waiting for a moment to run.

"What are you doing here?" the Huntress asked, her voice harrowed by the Grimm bone mask.

"I'm a student from Beacon. I need help," Robin whimpered.

The Huntress sheathed her sword and stepped into moonlight. The four eyes of her mask shone in the light. The bottom row blinked. The rest of her was red and black, a kimono and combat skirt with hyper-fine stitching. Robin recognized Vale craftsmanship immediately. This couldn't be a rogue.

The huntress turned and walked away.

"Wait," Robin cried, "aren't... Wait! Aren't you going to help me?"

"No," the stranger called, her voice as hollow as the rejection.

"But, I need your help!"

The stranger stopped and turned to face her again.

"You're a student."

"Yes! I need to find Vulgaris or my professor-"

"-Stop. You won't get pity from me, so stop that whining sound."

"But-"

"No. You're a student. That means you have no money and no goods. There's nothing you have that I need. So we have no business. They didn't teach you that about the wild, did they? You still think Goliaths are the top of the food chain and death is the worst that can happen. They teach you how to serve the kingdoms, but you know nothing about the world. So here: let me teach you a lesson."

She lunged. A blade flashed. Robin recognized Iaijutsu. The quick-draw triggered her reflexes and she back-stepped out of the blade's range. Then it doubled in length as it cleared its sheath. Her cheek burned. A kinetic blast floored her. Droplets of blood gathered on her face, and she watched in stunned terror as they drifted from her skin and hovered to the blade.

The huntress raised her mask. She had raven hair, crimson eyes, and a swift pink tongue that cleaned her blade. The mask lowered, the blade sheathed, and she growled, "Nothing is free."

Robin trembled. She had fallen to her back, and the huntress was staying in position for a _coup de grace._

"Well? Get up. You can't find it if you stay here."

"Yes, Ma'am," Robin nodded. She stood.

"Cold," The Huntress stated.

Robin knew better than to ask. She waited, breathed, and tested the waters by taking a step back.

"Warmer," The Huntress stated.

"You've got to be kidding."

"I said it isn't free. I didn't say you're paid in full. Now entertain me."

Robin stepped to her right to lean against a tree and address her face wound.

"Colder."

"You're a regular Raven Branwen," Robin sneered.

She froze, and realized with a start who she was speaking to. Raven had a similar static shock in her posture.

"You're quick. I like that," she cooed.

Robin's wound was already healed. She hadn't been cut deep. She expected that it wasn't the only trick Raven had. She'd been in fairy tales for a while now, sometimes as a hero, others as a villain. She was in more villain tales recently, and there were rumors that she had shed her humanity in pursuit of magic. Robin forced herself to think of her team. They were waiting for her to bring Vulgaris petals. She walked.

"Warmer."

They walked together, Raven following her with folded arms and a smirk in her voice. The walk into the forest was deep and winding. Raven would bring her to a place and then decide she was mistaken.

"Oh, wait..." she cooed the third time, "Maybe it _was_ before the low copse."

Robin was cold. She was tired. She'd run dry on adrenaline in the firefight. She had nothing but bad ideas, and hope.  
"I appreciate your help, Miss Branwen, but-"

"Mrs," she corrected.

"I- I don't-"

"There was no divorce."

"Mrs. Branwen, I appreciate your help, but I don't have time. Is there a faster way I can entertain you? I know how to juggle. I can sing. I know stories. But please, my instructor is poisoned, and she needs Vulgaris to cure her or she'll die of her wounds."

"That's so tragic," Branwen noted.

Raven had the appearance of thinking, then she flattened her combat skirt and sat. She removed a sack from her pack, and laid out a whole bushel of Vulgaris petals beside her.

"You need more than you could have picked in an hour, little girl. I happen to have it. So I propose-"

Robin pointed at the Vulgaris and stepped too close. A blade flashed and cut her palm.

"That's close enough," Raven hissed.

Robin stepped back. Branwen flicked her blade, and its length evaporated with the dust enhancement. She returned it to the sheath, where Robin noted a revolver-action infuser. She understood the trick and had a good judgment on the blade's maximum length now. She was ready for a fight, if it came to it.

"I'm sorry," she shivered.

"I was proposing a quick solution. Sit."

Raven gestured. Robin obeyed. The dirt here was moist and rich. The smell of soil wafted from every surface, as if the whole of the place was a tea steeped too long. Branwen had the look of shadows out of place. Her red and Black contrasted in the blended darkness of nature. She removed her mask, to show Robin a stern face.

"I'm going to tell you a riddle, for free. You have three guesses. If you solve the riddle, you may have my Vulgaris."

As she spoke, she removed tea leaves from her pack, and a pot, and a burn crystal, cut.

She began her brewing, and then looked to Robin for her reaction. Robin's only preparation was to hug herself tighter and find a comfortable way to sit on a log.

"What if I guess wrong?" she was wise enough to ask.

"Then I sell you another riddle," Branwen stated.

"Okay," Robin nodded.

Raven held up a hand.

"You know who I am."

"Yes."

"You know I won't hurt you if walk away."

"... Yes?"

"You know I hurt the people who stay near to me."

Robin looked at the Vulgaris. She knew she couldn't leave.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun with you," Raven smiled.

She took a piece of chalk from her bag and wrote something on a rock. She placed the writing face-down.

And then she gave her riddle.

"I hunger.

Maidens vex me.

Ritual is my scialytic.

Sanguinolent Intelligence, lacking malevolent ardence.

Aura fuels my body.

Death, my soul.

I hunger."

"The Grimm," Robin blurted.

Raven blinked. She offered no hints.

"But..."

Robin thought it through. The answer was something with insatiable hunger. Scyalitic meant something about shadows. Ritual was a human trait.

Robin guessed, "Humanity and/or the Faunus, whatever it's called when you include both?"

She squinted. A corner of Raven's mouth hung open.

"You poor girl," she cooed, "Is it hard to be stupid?"

The grimace became a very broad smile. Robin had been staring at Raven's face for a while. Only now did she notice that her smile was too wide, and that her teeth were sharpened. Even without her mask, it was hard to tell her apart from a Grimm. Her crimson eyes blinked.

Robin focused back on the riddle. At its face value, she was meant to think of humanity and the Grimm, about their similarities. But there were problems. Maidens don't vex humanity. Grimm have no rituals or gods. Aura fuels the soul, not the body. Death fuels the soul of a Grimm, but not humans. Well... It depends on the human.

"The Schnees?" she tried.

She wished Sapphire was there. She wished Mud was there. She wished a lot of other things. Raven took her time reacting. She checked her teapot, which gave the verdict.

"It'll still take a few minutes to boil," she muttered.

She tipped the rock face-up, to show where she had written "Balefire."

"That's not fair. I don't know what that is," Robin pointed.

Raven scowled at her hand. Robin retracted it, remembering the pain from last time.

"There are other ways for you to get my Vulgaris petals," Raven hissed.

"And I assure you, they are much less fair."

Her hand had moved to her sword. She relaxed it again.

"The Balefire is the smartest of the Grimm," Raven explained.

"But I thought Goliaths-"

"I already told you they aren't. I'll explain the riddle. Grimm, like humanity, have a hunger that they can never sate. Maidens vex the Grimm, but not humanity. Balefires are the only Grimm with rituals. For example, they have a scialytic ritual, for banishing the shadow from their bodies. It renders them invisible. They have rituals that stop them from aging as well. Sanguinolent intelligence is another unique feature of the Balefire. They are not compelled by emotion, like the other Grimm. Aura fuels their immortality ritual. Killing fuels a Grimm's soul. The last line was just prose."

Her tea was boiling. She addressed the pot, and Robin saw her chance to sprint and steal the Vulgaris. She hadn't revealed her semblance yet. She had a chance, and Raven's guard appeared to be down. Temperance won. She watched Raven pour the tea, and realized that she was being watched in the metal reflection of the pot. Raven enjoyed a sip and relaxed.

"We can negotiate now, if you'd like to buy another riddle."

Her smile returned, this time voracious.

"But you'll sell me another riddle that I have no chance of guessing!"

"Then we can negotiate for the Vulgaris," she decided.

Her eyes sparkled. Her smile, and her teeth, seemed to sharpen.

"But you said-"

"I've changed my mind. Cut off your hand and give it to me. That's what I want for the Vulgaris petals."

She sipped her tea while Robin was stunned.

"No!"

"I was going to charge a finger per riddle. At least this way, you get to keep some. And we save time, too."

"I... I can't cut off my own hand!"

"It's easier than it seems," Raven cooed, "with the right motivation. What was that _sad, sad_ story you told me?"

Belladonna. Robin's team would be waiting for her. She thought of Mud. He would never forgive her. And she wouldn't be the first Huntress to lose a hand.

"I'll do it," she said, "But you give me all of the Vulgaris, and our business is done."

Raven nodded. She sipped her tea, and leaned in to watch. Robin had a utility knife. She knew to make quick work of it, and to prepare her bandages beforehand. She steadied her breathing, and readied her aura.

"Roll your sleeve up," Raven suggested.

"I need it to tie the wound," Robin mumbled.

"Don't blame me if the cut's crooked," Raven acquiesced.

The blade moved. Robin didn't cry. She watched her own hands work, but felt nothing. She emphasized her strength in the middle, and her finesse to separate the skin at the end. She made quick work covering the wound. She sniffled. Tears streamed. It was not the pain, but the presence of such an evil woman- her mere existence. She belonged back in her fairy tale.

The hand was in a sack, and Robin tossed it across their divide. Raven smiled at it, and tossed her sack of Vulgaris in return. Robin turned. She expected resistance. Her plan was to run. If she had to fight, it wouldn't be on the ground Raven had chosen. She had enough surprises to gain the upper hand now, so to speak. But she did not expect Raven's parting words.

"Enjoy the labyrinth, Robin."

Robin stopped. She considered. And she realized, with a jolt of fear, that she had lost her bearings. She turned on Raven, her stump arm clutched close.

"This was a trap."

"No. Just insurance," Raven hummed.

She tipped the hand-sack over, and let the prosthetic roll away into the dirt.

"I don't like being swindled," Raven said, "So I took you into this artificial forest. The Balefires planted every tree themselves. It took them twenty years, but they've had their fill of Huntsmen since. You have no chance of escaping here without my help. And I want your hand."

The ruse was over, so Robin pushed her real hand out of her sleeve and pressed the detonator in her pocket. The sparkler rose up into the sky, and she had all the bearing she needed.

"Get juked, hag!" were her parting words.

She ran.


	6. Chapter 6

"You guys are not going to believe what happened in that forest," Robin panted.

She pulled the barn doors closed and tossed the Vulgaris sack. Sapphire didn't care for the story. She set to work with a mortar and pestle nestled in her cross-legged stance.

"Kale?"

Kale was beside a fire and pot, brewing the remedy's core.

"Yeah, we're good here. Remember the petals have to be really fine. We add the petals and it's ready to serve. How is she, Mud?"

Mud had moved Belladonna to a mass of hay beneath the skylight. Where the ceiling had been destroyed, moonlight pierced barn haze and lit up the silver of her skin. Mud busied his hands compressing a mass of bandage.

"Her stomach isn't punctured," he mumbled.

Belladonna wasn't curled anymore. She appeared dead to the world. But at the sound of Mud's voice, her head rolled to him.

"Professor?"

Kale approached with a cup.

"Professor Belladonna, we have something you need to drink."

Her eyelids fluttered. Her breathing revved, and she groaned. Mud flinched as if the pain was his own. He nodded to Sapphire.

"Lift her up. I need to keep pressure on the wound."

It was a team effort, getting her into position, getting her to sputter on the drink and finally chug it.

"Here's to luck," Kale whispered.

Belladonna's breathing hastened again. She was awake, but all her thoughts were consumed by the rapid pace of her lungs. Her eyes opened. She raised her hand and wiped blood from one, and they saw that her scar had sealed again.

Despite their exhaustion, they found the last bits of emotion they had not yet spent. Mud removed her bandages and wrapped his arms around her. Robin found an awkward way to add into that group, and Kale found Sapphire's side. He knelt and placed a hand on her back. By great effort, she was not crying with joy.

"You did good," he told her.

She nodded, and allowed herself a smile.

"Although I really gotta ask how you knew how to cure a poison that none of us knew existed. Grimm worms in her blood? They didn't teach you that in an elective class."

Sapphire shook her head.

"Remember that night I got arrested and I was too embarrassed to talk about it?"

"Yeah."

"I broke into the vault under the school. I took some books."

Kale chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, whispering, "you incurable _nerd_."

"We're not at Beacon," Belladonna noted.

Her breathing stayed rapid, but she was awake and alert. Her head snapped around to Sapphire.

"We're in Odessa," Sapphire said.

"No. We can't stay here!"

Belladonna tried to stand. Through incredible pain, she got her knees under her. She could go no further.

"No, it's okay, Professor."

Sapphire helped her back to the ground, forcefully.

"You can't be moving yet, but it's okay. We killed the slavers, and we have enough supplies to get back now."

"What about The Grimm?"

"Haven't seen 'em," Sapphire smiled.

She considered, then amended, "I mean... Haven't _felt_ them."

Belladonna breathed easier. She laid back from her elbows to the hay. She was thinking. She felt her wounds.

"The cruiser?"

She turned it to Sapphire again, who shook her head.

"They already left."

"I guess we're walking," Belladonna hummed.

She sat up against a wall. She looked at Mud.

"How long since you strangled Ginger?"

"Three hours," Mud shrugged.

It had felt like days. Blake nodded, then smiled to him.

"It's cleaner the second time," she assured him.

They smiled together.

"I sure hope so," Robin interrupted.

She held out her skirt to display the blot splatter along her whole form. Everyone smiled.

"Damn it, Robin," Sapphire chuckled.

"You had to be there, though, teach," Kale laughed, "She threw a grenade into this group of five of them. Well one guy reaches his hand out, catches it midair, and throws it back. So she throws two more. Same guy- no joke- he reaches out and grabs both, and throws them both at me and Pond. So Robin throws another, Sapphire and I kick ours at him, and he catches both of ours in one hand, and Robin's in the other."

"Only I used the alt-setting," Robin sneered.

Kale demonstrated the explosion with his hands and mouth.

Sapphire mimicked the cries of despair.

Robin pretended to shield herself from gore.

Everyone laughed.

And Blake let them. She had never taken the lesson to heart, but she knew tragedy and comedy were two heads of the same coin. She didn't interrupt their chatter again until her stomach rumbled into the conversation.

"You know," Kale pointed to the organ, "that's not a bad idea."

Sapphire nodded to Robin, who was already tinkering with pots and pans.

"On it," Robin chimed.

Then to Mud, "Any special requests?"

"Uh..."

He saw that everyone else was watching him. Belladonna nudged his arm and winked.

Mud blushed, "I really like it when you make soup."

"Should be quick," she predicted.

"Speaking of which," Sapphire cooed.

She nodded to the overflowing sack of Vulgaris.

"Yeah," Kale noted, "How'd you get in and out of the forest with that much so fast? Vulgaris can't even grow near other Vulgaris."

"I almost didn't," Robin laughed.

Sapphire's neck straightened.

"Grimm?"

"No. A huntress. But she had a Grimm mask, so I thought so for a second."

Belladonna's eyes narrowed. She didn't comment. Beside her, Mud had assumed his normal silence and stillness.

"This sounds like another one of your stories," Kale pointed.

"It is, but it's also true," Robin pointed back.

"Anyway, it was Raven Branwen."

"Uhuh," Mud snarked from his corner.

"And she said I could have it if I answered a riddle," Robin continued.

"Mhm," Sapphire nodded.

"So I answered the riddle correctly, and she gave it to me," Robin finished.

"You stole it," Kale surmised.

"You robbed Raven Branwen," Belladonna smirked, "And I thought today couldn't get worse."

She leaned back against the hay and closed her eyes.

"I have to sleep now. You kids be sure and make a lot of noise when she kills you."

"I'm serious," Robin asserted.

"Me too," Belladonna murmured. And she was out.

Mud mumbled, "Who's Raven Branwen?"

They all sighed and explained.

It was a few minutes later that they woke the professor to eat. Sapphire had the map out for her, explaining the route she'd mapped. Belladonna listened to the entire plan without interrupting, then nodded. Sapphire beamed.

Belladonna and Mud finished first, together. Robin was too busy talking.

"I think I know what that blood circle was that we found."

Munch, munch, slurp.

"Raven said that the Balefires-" She had all of Belladonna's attention- "have rituals that make them invisible, and stop them from aging. They're intelligent Grimm."

"Did you say Balefires?" Mud interrupted.

Now he had Belladonna's attention.

"Yeah, why?" Robin nodded.

"The slavers were talking about Balefires. They said they couldn't sell Professor Belladonna to their broker. He said... Uh... There was something the Balefires do every month, but they hadn't done it for a long time. So he thought they could sell Professor Belladonna to them."

Kale slurped his soup to interrupt, "The slavers said something about Balefires when they were talking about us, too. The Balefires stopped chasing the Professor because they were chasing something else."

"Us?"

"I guess not," Kale shrugged.

They all looked to Professor Belladonna, who nodded, "I can fill in the blanks."

Everyone ate quieter while she spoke.

"Balefires are classified. If you speak about them to the general public, you'll get a swift banishment from civilization. I think you all understand why. They are intelligent Grimm," she nodded to Robin, "and we usually see them before a swarm attacks. They're highly dangerous, and worth a lot of money to the brave. That explains why Raven's here. But they can turn invisible now. That means they're relearning the old ways."

Kale leaned in to offer, "How do we beat them?"

"No," Belladonna snapped, "You don't understand. Balefires are to Grimm what Huntsmen are to Humanity. These are disciplined fighters. And judging by their bones, they're ancient. We should be scared of them."

"Well I'm not," Robin asserted.

She gestured to the second fire, to the bubbling pot. She added Vulgaris to it.

"Because I think I know why Raven gave me all of her Vulgaris and told me so much."

"You're probably wrong, but go on," Belladonna nodded.

"She told me that the Balefires make themselves invisible by banishing the shadows from their bodies. We already know how to brew shadows from our friends the slavers. They have the ingredients lined up right here on the wall, and they're the same as the cure. Like cures like, so reverse engineering isn't that hard."

"That's _not_ how chemistry works," Sapphire pointed.

"But it _is_ how alchemy works. And right now, we're dealing with magic."

"That's stupid," Mud mumbled.

"Sorry," he added.

"Does it work?" Kale pointed.

Robin shrugged. She reached her finger into the mixture and removed it with a look of wonder and terror.

"Sorry I called it stupid," Mud mumbled.

Everyone else was speechless. Her finger, even to their auras, was a Grimm. Robin dipped her finger into the cure and watched it wash away. The feeling receded from all of them. Robin made quick work bottling some. Belladonna was thinking.

"If the Balefires were tracking you, where would they be?"

She looked to Sapphire, who swallowed her soup.

"A few hours into the fields. We set up a dummy camp to lure some of the bandits out."

"When should the bandits be back?" Belladonna noted.

Sapphire checked her scroll. Everyone could see her worry.

"About an hour ago," she realized.

"But... We haven't sensed Grimm," Kale interjected.

"Yeah," Robin nodded, "We would have sensed them if they tracked us here. I mean, they turn invisible, not... You know."

Belladonna shook her head.

"If you had asked me yesterday, I would have told you they _don't_ turn invisible."

"But they can't hide what they are! That isn't possible. Right?"

Blake's ears twitched. She looked up, through the skylight, at the shattered moon. Its beams shifted without cause. She dodged.

Thunder struck the room. The hay ignited where she'd been the instant before. Everyone leaped to their feet, weapons and panic rising. Robin had enough wit left to toss her potion. And the Balefire appeared. Its sword was human bones, glued together with Dust that crackled along the surface with energy. Its tongues were ceaseless, lapping from mouths on each head and whispering, discordant, in the human language.

"The shining light will sink in darkness/Victory for hate incarnate."

And in its off-hand hand was a glass bottle, something dark and viscous spinning within. The arm was raised, but came down and crashed its potion against Robin's aura. It crackled, fizzled, and popped. The potion wet her face. Another Balefire crashed through the barn doors, lashing out with a whip of sinew and teeth.

Mud's face was the last thing she saw.


	7. Chapter 7

Sapphire trembled. It had been a long while since anyone checked on her, and she needed it. She was huddled in the corner beside the door, camouflaged and pretending to keep a look out. All she could see was Robin's blood misting in the air as her body scattered. She heard Blake murmuring.

"We have to go, now. They're leaving, and we're taking advantage of that."

The words echoed in Sapphire's head.

"No," she answered.

"It isn't your decision," Blake pointed.

"It's my decision if I stay," she snapped back.

Her legs shook when she stood.

"They're going back to their blood circle. That's why they took her body. They need it for their ritual."

She gestured to Kale.

"That's what the bandits said, right? Right?!"

Kale nodded.

"We know where they're going to be! We know how to make them visible!"

Blake pointed at the sky.

"Mistral's airfleet can level the entire valley, but only if we tell them to."

"They're intelligent, right?" Sapphire pointed out the door, to the mountains.

Blake nodded. Sapphire scoffed.

"Then they'll be gone as soon as their ritual's done. Robin gave us everything we need to kill them. If we run away now, they'll just learn from their mistakes. They'll get away, and they'll keep killing. If we leave now, our friend died for nothing."

Sapphire didn't stop shaking. She couldn't.

"We have ten hours," Belladonna finally said, "until the sun sets. Grimm magic only works at night, and we held them off until day. I'm sorry. If I had known they were after her body, I would have been more aggressive about controlling the area."

"You can make it up to me if you help us kill them," Sapphire answered.

Mud moved to her side and nodded, a fierce pain souring his face.

Kale stood and joined them.

"We didn't come here to be afraid. We came to be Huntsmen," he said.

Blake sighed and nodded.

They brewed more of Robin's potion, following the steps they'd watched her make hours ago. They slept. There was no decision to. They were walking to the mountains, and suddenly found they couldn't go on. Mud erected the tent and dragged his friends into it. Belladonna spoke in her sleep.

"You should be here, Yang."

They woke, ate, and marched through the afternoon. They watched the sun set together. No one spoke. They knew the area they were attacking. They moved through foliage in formation. Their targets were a hundred meters ahead, unmasked. Whatever had hid them from aura had worn off in the fight. It was here that the group stopped for the last rest, to tighten their strings and dry their grips.

This was also when Raven Branwen arrived. She stepped from the foliage and stopped in surprise.

"Blake Belladonna," she noted. Her mask was eerily familiar. It was the bone face of the Balefires. Belladonna glared up from her kneeling, and strangled her boot as she tightened it.

"What are you doing here?"

" _Hunting_ ," Raven hissed. She surveyed the students, then added, "Let me guess: They killed one and ran."

"We're short on time, so talk fast," Blake hissed.

Raven placed a hand on her sword. Everyone raised their weapons.

"I'll help you," Raven announced, "because I liked Robin."

"And what do you want in return?" Blake guessed.

"Did Robin have time to solve my riddles and brew you those potions?"

Belladonna scowled as she handed one over. Raven smiled at it, turning it in her hand.

"She was a clever one. Wait here. I'll drive them into you."

She turned away from them, and readied her sword. Then she charged, quiet and swift.

Their weapons arrayed, and the sound of bladecraft and kiais started a stampede. Sapphire shouted, "NOW!" and Dust leveled the forest before them in a storm of elements. The Grimm died like smoke hit with air. Three vanished in an instant. The fourth ran past them for its life, but tripped when Mud's chain wrapped around its leg, and then died when the pistol whipped around and triggered against its heads. He'd modeled the weapon after Gambol Shroud. Fighting side-by-side with Belladonna, his friends saw their steps as almost identical.

Kale brought his mace onto another's ankle. The creature's last words were in the human tongue.

"The world ends in darkness/I have seen it."

One Grimm remained. Its wild sprint reached the mountain and began climbing. Its powerful legs and agile claws gave it the advantage. It was reckless ambition that drove the humans. The grenades they'd salvaged from Robin's pack sent them soaring up to the peak just as the monster slid down its other slope. But the damned thing had made quick work of falling. It was out of weapon range.

Sapphire made to charge again. Blake held her back.

"Wait."

She pointed.

In the darkness of the night sky was an out of place cloud. On closer inspection, they saw _Winter's Kiss_ engraved on its hull. The Grimm wasn't looking up. It saw nothing, but a growing light around its form. And the cruiser casually annihilated it with laser fire.

Belladonna's scroll rumbled. She answered it, panting, and smiled at an old friend.

"Sorry, Mrs. Schnee, can I put you on hold?"

" _Seriously?_ "

She snapped it shut. At her side, Mud pointed.

"Did you just-"

Kale caught up to them, and looked at the cruiser with a happy realization.

"We got it?"

"We got it," Sapphire nodded.

They turned to look down at their battlefield. Embers and lightning danced and glowed over the ruins.

"If it's alright..."

Sapphire gestured to the scroll. Blake flicked it open and handed it over. Sapphire took a moment to breathe. She said, "Mrs. Schnee, my name is Sapphire Pond. I... I'm a huntress. My friend died in the battle, and I would appreciate if your crew could receive her."

She knew, from the stories, that Weiss would understand. She had walked the same path, and had the scar to prove it. Her eyes were a piercing steel color, her face tempered and serious as only a veteran's could be. She nodded.


End file.
